Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu & dead prez
Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu & Queen Latifah & Angie Stone & Bahamadia
Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu & Common
Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu connects with hip-hop group dead prez on this track about the struggle—or “the grind"—of working a low-paying job to barely pay the bills while contemplating getting more cash faster through potentially illegal means.
Steady On the Grind
Every day is a struggle
How to hustle some doe
If you was raised in the hood
Well then you already know
It be days that be good
But mostly money be slow
Have you ever been hungry before?
Steady on the grind
Steady on the grind
‘Cause I got to make it happen
My family depending on me
Steady on the grind
Steady on the grind
‘Cause I got to make it happen
‘ain't nobody gone do it for me (Gotta get them dollar bills)
Ha ooh wa ooh ha ooh wa ooh (Almighty dollar)
Ha ooh wa ooh ha ooh wa ooh
Ha ooh wa ooh ha ooh wa ooh (Almighty dollar)
Ha ooh wa ooh ha ooh wa ooh
Steady on the grind
Daily on the grind
Money on my mind
So heavy on my mind
So heavy on my mind
[Verse 1 – M-1]
Well, I'm a freedom fighter. It's killa
Keep it Marcus Garvey, People Army guerrilla
Economic development—down for manual labor
Revolutionary hustler, fund raiser
Catch me doing outreach
See me running the streets
Politically educated but never graduated
Call me Doc like Mutulu Shakur, fight for the poor
Have you ever been hungry before? Nigga, fa sure
Mommy got a job making 'bout six somethin' an hour
She became the breadwinner when daddy was unemployed
Working forty-plus hours and kissing ass
Seeming like the only honest way she can get some cash
She strugglin', she don't know I be hustlin' pulling my own weight
I be hearing them fuss and fightin' at night mad late
Over economics, it's logic—meaning they don't got it
Living in the projects, money's the only object
She makes $280 a week, standing on her feet
The ends ain't even meetin', the family ain't eatin'
And the taxes is ten percent, the rest is for the rent
Then crime is what you get and niggas is innocent
See, it really ain't about if you eatin' or not eatin'
It's freedom or not freedom, breathin' or not breathin'
'Nother day, 'nother way, 'nother dollar spent
Gotta make a revolution out of fifteen cent
The Grind was written by M-1 & stic.man & Erykah Badu.
The Grind was produced by Erykah Badu & Rashad Smith & dead prez.
Erykah Badu released The Grind on Tue Sep 16 2003.